French Butter Cookies (Palets Bretons)
Traditional French butter cookies recipe for Palets Bretons - the popular thick salted butter biscuit/cookie from Brittany. Best enjoyed on their own, they are also a classic base for many French pastries or cakes.
Ingredients
- 90 g (3oz/½ cup) butter (unsalted)* at room temperature
- 75 g (2.5oz/ ⅓ cup) sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt (fleur de sel) omit if using good quality French salted butter
- 2 egg yolks organic
- 125 g (4oz/1 cup) Plain flour (all-purpose)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- Using a mixer, beat together the softened butter, sugar and salt until light and creamy. Mix in the egg yolks then the flour and baking powder until a lovely soft dough forms.(If you don’t have a mixer or electric whisk, this can be done by hand in a large bowl).
- Using the palm of your hands, roll the dough back and forward to create a sausage shape until the diameter is the size of your moulds (here I used mini muffin silicone moulds @5cm diameter). Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to set the sausage shape.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180°C/360°F/160°C fan (gas mark 4)
- Cut disks of 1.5cm (¾ inch) and press them into the muffin moulds (unbuttered – there’s enough butter in the biscuits!)
- Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Leave to cool in the moulds then turn them out on to a baking rack, pretty side up.
Video
Notes
* As finding good quality salted butter from Brittany can be difficult to find outside of France, make this recipe using unsalted European butter (82% fat) and add good quality 'fleur de sel' from the Guérande (nearest equivalents are Maldon salt or Celtic sea salt).
Delicious on their own with a cup of tea (such as Jasmine green tea or Ceylon).
Also delicious topped with chocolate mousse, Chantilly cream and strawberries. Measures: Please note that all my recipes are best made using digital kitchen scales in precise metric grams. Both ounces (and cups) are given as a guide.
Also delicious topped with chocolate mousse, Chantilly cream and strawberries. Measures: Please note that all my recipes are best made using digital kitchen scales in precise metric grams. Both ounces (and cups) are given as a guide.